[Based on Howl's Moving Castle] Kagome lived a dreary life as the second eldest of four. Until a witch turned her invisible and blind. Now Kagome must seek guidance. Which means striking a bargain with the lecherous Hanyou Inuyasha.

AN:
Okay. I promise I will NOT start anymore new fics.
I really
need to learn to finish a story before I start another. But
this one was too tantalizing to put on hold! Okay, okay… I'm
going to focus on at least ending this particular story before
summer. Then I can concentrate on my other fics.

Ahem.

If the
title seems anywhere near familiar then I won't have to tell you
this story was inspired by Howl's Moving Castle.
It's not 'based on' so much as 'influenced by'. The
charming animated version tickled me so much I just had to get the
original novel. In which I was captivated with. In which I decided to
make a fic dedicated to.

In which
I find myself parodying the titles of the chapters in this very
sentence. In which I find myself asking, 'If you don't understand
why I'm talking like this then go read the book.'

In which
I follow with, 'Fine, I'll stop talking… but first…'

Disclaimer:
I am NOT taking credit for Diana Wynne Jones or Miyazaki's
work. Oh, I also don't own Inuyasha. Be warned; a natural beast
bred in the wilderness should NOT be domesticated. To maintain the
species they must remain untamed. Save the species! (Conservationists
must be so ashamed of Kagome right now.)

And now,
presenting from Snowgirl's Basement Studio, I give you…

—

–

-

The
Moving Castle

Cleaning
and Cursing

-

–

—

Kagome
Higurashi was neither the eldest nor the youngest of four children.
Actually, she was not a very special girl compared to her siblings.

Her
parents were popular shrine keepers and kept a little jewel store in
the bustling city of Tokyo. True, her own father died when Kagome was
young and her brother Souta was barely born, and their mother married
her coworker, a handsome man from Shanghai called
Feng, who had his own girls; Kikyou and Kaede.

This
ought to have sparked major rivalries among the girls and boy,
especially Kikyou and Kagome, but in fact all four children grew up
happily, though Kikyou was the one everyone doted on.

Feng
treated all four children with the same kindness and did not favor
Kikyou or Kaede in the least, which was a very good thing indeed.

Mrs.
Higurashi, or now known as Mrs. Wen, was very proud of her four
children and sent them all to the best school in the city. Kagome was
the most studious. She read a great deal, though realized she would
never understand Trigonometry, and very soon recognized how little
chance she had of a successful future.

Kikyou,
no matter the eerie resemblance, would always be more beautiful and
elegant than Kagome. She was the eldest and brightest of the four.
Kaede followed in her sister's footsteps and diligently worked for
greatness. Being the second youngest seemed to fuel her
determination, helping her skip three grades and achieve scholarships
to several private institutes.

Souta,
Kagome's brother by blood, was the youngest of the four and the
only male of the four. They expected great things out of him, and
already he showed talent in soccer and attained top ranking in all
his classes.

The third
eldest was disappointed, but she was still happy enough, looking
after little Kaede and Souta and grooming Kikyou to seek her fortune
when the time came. Since Feng was always busy in the shop and Mrs.
Wen took care of the shrine, Kagome was the one who looked after the
younger two.

"No
more video games!" Kagome would shout. "You two will be wearing
glasses by the time you get to high school!"

To which
Souta always retorted that she'd be wearing one as soon as
she graduated middle school, to which Kaede politely pointed out her
excessive reading habits.

Then
Kagome would have to stomp out and grab her bow and arrows, an only
way in which she could release her anger in a healthy manner. She'd
change her mind and instead go upstairs to read if she found her
sister in the backyard; it was one of those moments when envy found a
way to pester her.

Kagome
had other things on her mind before long, however, for Feng died
suddenly just as Kikyou was old enough to leave high school. It then
appeared that Mrs. Wen had been altogether too proud of her children.
The tuition costs Feng had been paying had left the family with quite
heavy debts. When the funeral was over, Mrs. Wen sat down in the
office in the house next door to the shrine and explained the
situation.

"After
I'm Ms. Higurashi again, you'll all have to leave that private
school, I'm afraid," she said. "I've been checking the
numbers back and front, and the only way I can see to keep the shrine
and keep the business is to see you all switch to a public
school. Kaede, I've checked and you're already in the most
advanced classes."

"And
me?" Souta looked up, cheeks still stained with tears.

"Don't
worry dear; I'll take care of everything before the end of summer."

Souta
managed a small smile even though his eyes began to water again.

"Now
Kikyou," she said. "With your full scholarship I don't see a
problem with you attending Tokyo University.
But you'll have to sacrifice the student exchange program, at least
until the debts can be repaid."

The
eldest conceded, simply feeling resigned to giving up a trip to the
Americas for
a year or two.

Mrs. Wen,
or now known as Ms. Higurashi, looked relieved.

Kagome,
listening, felt that her mother had worked everything out just as it
should be. Kikyou would still go to the best University in Japan, and
Kaede and Souta would still attend school and undoubtedly acquire the
highest grades within a month's time. As for Kagome herself, Kagome
had no doubt what was coming. It did not surprise her when her mother
said, "I tried to keep you in school, really I did, at least until
you graduated high school, but the tuition costs were so high…
please don't misunderstand. I tried, desperately mind you. I
stooped so low as to beg in front of the school board, but they don't
'do charity.' Now, Kagome dear, it seems only right and just that
you should inherit the shrine and store when I retire. So I've
decided to hire you myself, to give you a chance to learn the trade
hands-on. How do you feel about that?"

Kagome
thanked her gratefully. It was better than the outcome she had
expected.

"So
that's settled then!" Mom said.

The next
day Kagome's Grandpa arrived.

"Grandpa's
going to live with us from now on," Mom explained. "Besides, we
always needed help in the shrine."

The very
next week Kagome helped Kikyou pack her clothes, and the morning
after that they all saw her off on the bullet train, looking much
more cheerful than Kaede and Souta when they went off for the first
day of school two weeks later.

The
little ones always had new things to complain about when they came
home, chastising the outdated computers and analyzing the inferior
periodic table of elements. A week later the mailman brought back a
neat note from Kikyou, saying she'd call as soon as she was allowed
her own phone. That was all Kagome heard of her sister for quite a
while, because she started working the day Kaede and Souta started
school.

Kagome of
course knew the business quite well already. Since she was a tiny
child she had run in and out of the jewelry store where the fineries
and well-dressed folks seemed to glitter and sparkle like polished
diamonds. The shrine was easy to handle as well. Most of the morning
she swept the steps of dead leaves while Grandpa showed potential
customers mainly consisting of tourists the way around.

"You
lead up to the souvenir shop," Grandpa said. "Show them the fancy
handiworks and sugarcoat the tour, so they know what a bargain it is
as soon as they get to the souvenirs."

In fact,
Kagome did not talk to customers very much. After a day or so
observing Grandpa maintain the shrine and another day going round the
store with Mom, her mother set her with janitorial works. Kagome
didn't like to speak to the glamorous customers at the store and
could not help but laugh at the foreigners with the horrible accent
at the shrine. She was good at mopping and sweeping. She quite liked
doing it, for it gave her something to do. But she felt isolated and
a little dull. The only person working at the store was her mother,
because the store was small and her mother was stubborn, so she could
not socialize with anyone other than the egotistical customers she
would much rather avoid.

By the
end of the month she could not do anything but sweep or mop. Either
she could not find the time, or she could not find the energy, or she
remembered she was a shameful dropout—anyway, every day it seemed
more difficult to go and enjoy life.

"This
is absurd!" Kagome said. "I can go to the mall at least.
Tomorrow—" And she swore to herself she would go out when the
store closed for the weekends.

Kagome
made more and more ludicrous promises as days went by, soon turning
to weeks, and then months.

Then, one
day, a surprise in the form of a phone call shook her morning ritual.

"Hello?"
Kagome answered.

"Oh
Kagome!" Kikyou's voice was rich with delight. "I'm so
relieved you answered."

Kagome
was more than shocked to hear her sister's voice again. After all
those days watching dust form on her work shoes a voice so soothing
and melodious did nothing but frighten, even overwhelm, the poor
cleaning girl.

"It's
been a whole semester. I haven't spoken or seen you in six months!
How have you been?"

"I'm…
I'm doing fine."

"Fine?
I would've thought you died if Kaede and Souta didn't write to me
everyday!"

Kagome
hadn't known her siblings had been writing to anyone. Indeed, she
didn't know what anyone in her family was doing anymore.

"I
finally got my phone. I should be very well pleased. But Kagome! You
sound so dreadful! What's happened to you?"

"Nothing,"
Kagome said. "I told you, I'm fine."

There was
a pregnant pause.

"Kikyou?"

"The
kids say you've become a janitor."

"Only
because I chose to. I never liked speaking to the rich."

"Grandpa's
been doing all the work, hasn't he? Why won't you help him at the
shrine?"

"I
sweep. It's not good for Grandpa to strain his back, so I sweep for
him."

"Don't
speak like a failure."

Kagome
winced. Kikyou's words stung, but it was the truth more so than the
order it was given in that really hurt.

"The
Kagome I knew was full of life and settled for nothing less than
greatness. Don't deny it," Kikyou said, "because Kaede
is a very observant girl, and Souta can be surprisingly keen."

"Lies,"
that's what they were: Nothing but lies. "I might as well be
invisible."

"Don't
be so blind. I'm your sister—I've lived with you long enough to
know that. You are not a failure and you deserve so much better. Tell
Mom or Grandpa you want to do something different. You need to, you
know."

"I hope
you didn't call just to criticize me." She tapped her foot.
Kikyou always knew how to agitate her best.

Her smile
was visible even through the phone. "Now there's the Kagome I
know; annoyed and hot tempered. All right, tell Mom and Grandpa I
called. I still have classes, after all."

Kagome
thought and thought, most of the following week, and all that
happened was that she became confused and disoriented. Things just
did not seem to be the way she thought they were.

There was
a lot of time for thinking, because she was left alone for most of
the day and evening. Mom did seem eager to have her as a janitor in
the shop, and Grandpa never had anything else for her to do in the
shrine. But she had been the one to give in without so much as
protesting. After three days Kagome plucked up courage to ask her
mother, "Shouldn't I be earning a wage?"

"Of
course, Kagome, with all you do!" Mom answered warmly, fixing her
hair in front of the shop mirror. "We'll see about it as soon as
I've done the accounts this evening." Then she went out and did
not come back until Kagome had shut the store.

Grandpa
was no better, only because he was not good with money, numbers, or
remembering any minor details.

Kagome at
first felt mean to have doubted her own mother, but when her mother
did not mention a wage, either that evening or any time later that
week, Kagome began to think that Kikyou was right.

"I need
to get out," she told herself in the mirror, "but someone has to
do this."

The next
morning she was busy sweeping the steps of the shrine. Wearing the
traditional shrine outfit, she stopped only when a light breeze blew
the leaves away from the steps and to the trees.

"That
was easy," Kagome blinked. "I suppose I should rest while I have
the chance."

Kagome
tried edging past the group of tourists, and when that failed she
jostled her way through the motley crew in a huff. Kagome escaped the
suffocating bunch and sank onto the steps of the Well House. She
watched the foreigners, in an absentminded way, and tightly held the
broom on her lap.

"They're
all so happy," she mumbled. "I wonder what it's like to visit
another country."

When one
of the visitors suddenly came her way Kagome shrank on the steps and
tried to hide in the shadows.

The young
man looked at her in surprise. "It's all right, you little
rabbit," he said, chuckling rather pityingly. "I only want to
take a picture of you. Don't look so scared."

The
pitying look made Kagome utterly ashamed. What really affected her
was not how he acted, but what he was.

Demons
were scarce in this time and age, yet the majority knew monsters and
unholy beings still existed in secrecy, if not then in infamy. But
this dashing specimen didn't bother hiding his inhuman features. He
had elaborate silver hair with piercing amber eyes. Not to mention
his incredible mastery over the Japanese language.

And, last
but not least, his dog ears…

He took
out his digital camera and waited for her approval.

"Oh,
yes, of course," Kagome stammered. "I'm not busy, so, by all
means…"

Kagome
drew back when the flash went off, slightly alarmed by the intensity
of the light. A queer feeling traveled down her spine and lingered
before quickly passing.

"Goodbye,
Miss Miko!"

He meant
it kindly, which made Kagome more ashamed than ever.

That
evening, as she mopped the store, Kagome wondered why a demon would
visit a shrine of all places. It was funny, really, for a demon to
have taken a picture of her, the daughter of the shrine. Since the
warring period the Miko and demons had been mortal enemies.

"Times
have changed," Kagome swung lazily on the wet, slippery floor.

The shop
door tolled like a funeral bell when two eager customers entered.

"And I
hear," whisper, whisper…

"I've
heard that," whisper, whisper…

The most
interesting thing about the shop was the talk from the customers.
Nobody can buy jewelry without gossiping.

Kagome
silently mopped the backroom and heard that a handful of demons had
come to Tokyo, for a much needed vacation or an important business
trip, and that one of them was a Halfling, really that man, whisper,
whisper, whisper…

The
voices always dropped low when the details became juicier.

"Are
you ladies looking for anything in particular?" her mother came in
wearing a fashionable business suit. "Oh, those are lovely fur
coats! Let me guess, blue fox fur?"

It was
always good to lavish the customers with compliments.

"Not
till eight," her mother said when the pair asked for the closing
time.

That
meant they'd be here until nine.

Emptying
the wastebasket, Kagome overheard another interesting bit of gossip.
Apparently, the so-called Halfling was an infamous heartbreaker from
the continent, known for breaking female hearts and stealing the
shattered pieces before pouncing on a new heart. Some said he was
sucking their souls, not eating their hearts, out of pure amusement.
He was utterly cold-blooded and no young girl was safe from him if he
caught her on her own. There was no real reason for his behavior.
Maybe, because he was half-human and half-demon, he needed young
hearts/souls to feel complete.

Nevertheless,
demons saw him shameful for he practiced no magic or sorcery, and
humans feared him for his humanlike qualities, capable of stealing
hearts of innocent and naïve girls alike.

"Specific
hearts…" whisper…

"Special
souls…" whisper…

The pair
giggled like schoolgirls. Kagome gathered that he had caught the
attention of the Princess of Japan, and now the Emperor was searching
for him.

Kagome
sat down on a stool, leaning on the wall. She needed to get with the
time; even old crones knew how to gossip better than her, a female
teenager. No doubt the kids were whispering the same thing while
Kagome slaved away in the store and shrine.

"No
one's seen him yet…" whisper…

"We
need to beware…" whisper…

Giggle,
giggle.

Kagome
shuddered at the thought. "What a retched demon," she pulled
herself together. "But I should be fine. He's looking for special
hearts… mine must be so utterly grey. I'm too plain for him."

She was
still discontented when the two customers left. Her mother left
through the backdoor, leaving her daughter to close up the shop.

Kagome
had no time to lock the door. As soon as she was alone the shop bell
clanged and a bewitching woman sailed in, with two green emeralds
hanging from her earlobes and opals winking all over her layered
kimono, plated with butterflies and flowers. Kagome's eyes went to
the lady's face first—a bony, sophisticated face with makeup
daintily accenting her features. Her face was carefully beautiful.
The smooth black hair bound by two slender feathers made her seem
young, but…

The blood
red eyes told all.

What luck
to see two demons in one day! Some people died in their nineties
without seeing a single demon their entire lifetime.

"Miss
Higurashi?" the lady asked in a musical but commanding voice.

"Yes,"
said Kagome.

"I hear
you sell the most precious diamonds," said the lady. "Show me."

Kagome
did not trust herself to answer in her present mood. She went behind
the counter and pushed out drawers and drawers of jewelry, packed
beneath the glass casing. The sooner the lady discovered there were
no fitting gems for her, the sooner she would go.

The lady
began rejecting jewelries instantly. "No allure," she said to the
rings, and "No youth" to the necklaces. To the pendants she said
with contempt, "Too new. These have nothing to offer. Anything
else?"

"That's
all we have. I can show you the stockroom, but they're only
copies."

"You're
wasting my time, Miss Higurashi."

"Only
because you came in and asked for jewelry," Kagome said. "This is
a small shop, Madam. Why did you—" The lady glared intensely.
"—bother to come in?" Kagome finished, undeterred. It troubled
her to realize how very enjoyable this was.

"I
always bother when someone tries to set themselves up against a
demon," said the lady. "I've heard of you, Miss Higurashi, and
I don't care for your attitude. I came to put a stop to you.
There." She spread out her hand in a flinging motion toward
Kagome's face.

"Put a
stop? You mean you're a witch?" Kagome quavered. Growing up, she
heard tales of demons with exceptional expertise in witchcraft and
dark magic. They were known to curse anyone that got in their way,
characterizing them a spiteful Witch or Wizard.

"A
witch?" she smiled cruelly. "Yes, something of the sort I
suppose. Some say I am the Wind Witch. Let that teach you to meddle
with things that belong to my master."

"Master?
Meddle? No, I don't think I did. There must be some mistake,"
Kagome croaked. She felt horribly cold all of a sudden, though she
could not see why. The door was closed, and she was wearing a fleece
jacket.

"No
mistake, Miss Higurashi," said the Witch. She turned and swept to
the shop door. Before exiting, she turned back to Kagome but did not
look her in the eyes. "By the way, that was a gift from my master.
It's what you wished for, after all. You should stay up till
midnight; I've added an interesting twist to it."

Kagome
watched the woman walk out, the darkness of the street almost
immediately enveloping her. Kagome put her hands to her face,
wondering what the Witch had done. She didn't feel any
different. Kagome examined her hands. She did not see any hands. She
pulled her gray skirt against her legs and looked down at… nothing.
Her legs nonexistent, air filled the dusty skirt. She raised one
unseen knee and felt it touch a part of her skirt, raising it to her
waist. Her legs were there, but they were invisible.

"Invisible,"
Kagome said as she shuffled to the mirror. She did not see a face in
the mirror. Only a fleece jacket floating above a drab skirt
seemingly held together by magic. "Well of course I'm invisible.
It's magic. This is what I wanted, isn't it?"

She
thought about her situation, quite calmly. Everything seemed to have
gone calm and remote. She was not even particularly angry with the
Wind Witch.

"What
did the Wind Witch say?" Kagome thought. "A twist? I'll
have to stay up all night to see, won't I?"

It was an
interesting choice of words, more ironic than humorous.

Kagome
hobbled over to the shop door and carefully put up the CLOSED notice.
She had to walk slowly, in fear of loosing her footing. The loss of
her fragile coordination never seemed so important until now. She
moved to the end of the counter at a snail's pace and held up the
flap as she eased through it. She sat on the tall stool and inspected
the shop. Her peripheral vision had unmistakably increased. She also
felt incredible lightness, an unreal feeling quelling any erratic
thoughts.

She
jumped up, however, when the store phone rang. The stool fell to the
floor with a bang and Kagome stumbled into the counter. She held onto
the ledge as she reached for the phone. Her hand felt the phone cord
and trailed it up to the receiver.

"Kagome?"

"Hi,"
Kagome uttered weakly.

"What
are you doing? Have you closed the shop yet?"

"Y-yes.
I just thought I should clean up a bit before I went… actually, I
want to stay for the night."

"What?
Why?" her mother demanded, concern gripping her voice.

"I… I
wanted to see what it's like. What it's like at night, I mean.
Like a sleep over."

Her
mother wasn't having any of it. "Kagome dear, close the shop
and come home. This isn't like you—"

Kagome
laughed in the way that showed she was not at all pleased. "Well,
of course," she said. "Isn't it lucky that I'm such an
obedient rabbit? Mother, dear, I'll skedaddle out of here as
soon as I go blind!"

She
slammed the receiver down, accurately on the holder.

Kagome
scoffed. "The nerve of that woman! Making her own daughter a slave
to the business! Who does she think she is? The evil stepmother? The
absolute madness of it all!"

She
smacked the flap aside and stomped to the center of the shop, pacing
circles at a furious rate while mumbling nasty things and cursing all
she knew. All the unhappiness she had withheld over the months, the
restrained thoughts she could not bring herself to vocalize, fused
and exploded like TNT.

This
must've gone on for a good hour. By then she was sweaty and tired,
throat dried from screaming and cursing. Oddly enough, she still felt
cold inside and out.

"I'm
too young for this," Kagome muttered as she fanned her face. "Too
innocent and naïve."

She sat
down on the stool again with a defeated slump. Kagome clasped her
hands round her knees with her thumbs twiddling. When that got
annoying, Kagome rocked on her stool back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth… Her eyelids began to droop.

"Perhaps
I should ask for a wage again; maybe tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow."
Kagome went properly to sleep and snored. She did not wake up when
there came a flash and a muted bang from the backdoor, followed by a
hurriedly bitten-off swearword. She did not wake when two men in
black ski masks unlocked the door and tiptoed into the stockroom. She
did not stir when one of them knocked her mop down with a clatter,
reaching over her for the glass cabinet, nor when the burglar,
looking down at the fleece jacket, remarked to his accomplice, "Is
this a mannequin?"

"Who
puts a mannequin behind the counter?" the second burglar retorted.

The first
one shrugged and further analyzed this mannequin.

In the
middle of the night Kagome was woken by someone snoring. She jumped
upright, rather irritated to discover that she was the one who had
been snoring. It seemed to her that she had only dropped off for a
second or so, but many things seemed to have happened in those
seconds. She thought she heard her mop fall. Then she dreamt of two
men screaming 'It's not a mannequin!' and stumbling out a door.
No doubt a dream brought on by the blasted curse.

She
looked to the clock. It was nearly midnight.

"The
Wind Witch did say stay up till midnight," Kagome mused. "Perhaps
I'll be sprouting more ears. And more mouths to boot! Then I'll
be the perfect gossiper!"

One
minute.

"Or
will I drop dead like a fly? No, no. That doesn't seem very
creative for a Wind Witch. She did act like a slave driver. Then
again, I'm already a slave," she cackled. "Oh, look at me. I'm
acting like a witch myself."

Thirty
seconds.

"Curses.
Maybe I will die. This is what that Witch wanted, isn't it? Now
I'll have to wonder if I end up suffocating to death. Or crushed to
death. Heart attack? Drown? Will I spontaneously combust?" She
checked the time, more anxious than ever.

Three,
two, one.

Midnight.
Kagome looked around the silent store, expecting something out of the
ordinary to pop up. She then examined herself. Nothing was happening,
oddly enough.

"What a
waste," Kagome grumbled. "And here I was, worrying for nothing. I
just about worried myself sick!" Kagome did not notice she was
forming a rather aggravating habit. An invisible person had the right
to panic and feel victimized. Speaking out loud, however, stayed
reserved for the sick and elderly.

She also
did not notice her hands beginning to reappear on her lap. Her
contorted face materialized along with her legs. Kagome did notice
something amiss when the store dimmed. Her hair fell across her face
in black fair hanks. She pushed her bangs apart and blinked. The room
dimmed until it was barely visible. Squinting in the darkness she
looked to the ceiling, where the lights hang brilliantly bright. The
lights worked in proper order but the store still grew darker and
darker.

Then she
realized what was happening, hit by an epiphany in one terrifying
moment. As the last traces of light receded in the gluttonous
darkness Kagome clenched the counter ledge for dear life. She wasn't
invisible anymore.

She was
blind.

—

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-

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AN:
This took longer than expected. Reviews will be appreciated and
adored. Enough said!

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.